Paramilitary Member Extradited to Mexico for Alleged Murder of Activists

MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — U.S. Federal authorities extradited a Mexican paramilitary member wanted in his home country for a fatal ambush against a convoy of international activists. The Mexican citizen who was arrested in New York had been previously deported twice.

According to information revealed by U.S. and Mexican authorities, 23-year-old Juan Macario Bautista Martinez is accused of having participated in a paramilitary group that ambushed a humanitarian aid convoy. Two activists died in the ambush.

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The attack took place on April, 27, 2010 in the community of San Juan Copala in the Mexican state of Oaxaca when Bautista and other paramilitaries used AK-47 rifles for the ambush. Finnish activist Jyri Jaakkola and Mexican activist Alberta “Betty” Cariño died in the attack. Ten other activists, who were taking food to some of Mexico’s poorest regions, were also injured in the ambush.

In 2012, the courts in Mexico issued an arrest warrant for Bautista in connection with the double murder. On June 16, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, Rhinebeck Police and New York State Police arrested Bautista at a local business in that state.

This week, agents with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations took Bautista to Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville, Texas. Authorities walked him to the middle of the bridge where they turned the suspect over to Mexican authorities. Buatista will now stand trial in Mexico.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Matamoros, Tamaulipas.